When we think of home security, we immediately imagine alarms, cameras, and reinforced doors. But the most frequent danger at home does not necessarily come from the outside. It comes from a dark hallway at three in the morning, a foot missing a step, or a child getting up without waking anyone. These are domestic accidents, not burglaries, and they deserve just as much attention.
Falls at home, a real public health issue
The Weekly Epidemiological Bulletin of Santé publique France dedicated to monitoring falls among the elderly highlights the scale of the problem: 85% of emergency room visits for everyday accidents among those 65 and older are caused by a fall. In 2014, 76,100 hospitalizations were triggered by a fracture of the upper femur among those 65 and older. And in 2013, 9,334 people over 65 died following an accidental fall.
These data are from 2013 and 2014; they are the most recent published in this form. The order of magnitude has no reason to have changed: the vast majority of these falls occur at home, in rooms we know by heart but sometimes traverse in complete darkness.
The Assurance Prévention association, supported by France Assureurs, surveyed the French on this subject in 2022: 61% of them have an elderly person in their circle who has fallen at home at least once, and 96% consider that home adaptation is a determining factor for prevention.
The real problem is the dark, not just age
Getting up at night to go to the bathroom, calming a crying child, checking on a noise: these are things we all do, regularly, without turning on the main ceiling light that would wake up the whole house. We grope our way, walk along the wall, and hope not to trip over a pair of shoes or a toy left in the middle of the hallway. This problem does not only affect the elderly: it also concerns children who are afraid of the dark, parents who get up for a bottle, or simply anyone in a poorly lit house at night.
Turning on a light switch requires knowing exactly where it is, keeping your hands free, and accepting a light that is often too bright for the time of night. These are small details, but when combined, they create the conditions for a fall.
What prevention specialists recommend
In its guide on home lighting, Assurance Prévention cites automatic lighting that turns on as you move along among the solutions to prioritize, alongside LED light paths, and recommends motion or presence detection equipment. The association also insists that stairs, small steps, and changes in level should be well-lit: these are the places where poor perception of depth is most costly.
A night light that turns on without thinking
This is exactly the principle followed by our motion sensor night light. It turns on automatically as soon as it detects movement in a hallway or dark room, then turns off by itself after a few moments, without the need to look for a switch or keep a lamp on all night.
We must be clear about what this is: a motion sensor night light improves visibility in the dark, nothing more. It is not a medical device, it does not replace a fall risk assessment by a healthcare professional if someone in the household is particularly exposed, and it obviously does not guarantee that no falls will occur. It is an automatic light that removes some of the hazard from navigating in the dark, not a miracle solution.
Where to place it in practice
The hallway leading to the bathroom is the top candidate, as it is the most frequent nighttime route in a house. Next comes the bottom of the stairs, where a poorly lit step is particularly dangerous. In a child's or elderly person's room, it can be placed near the floor to illuminate the path to the door directly rather than the ceiling. And in a kitchen or entrance that is not often used at night, it avoids having to look for the switch with your hands full.
This is not a product that protects against intrusion. It is a product that makes a home safer every day, for everyone who lives there, at night, without having to think about it.
The corresponding product
The Motion Sensor Night Light works wirelessly and without electrical installation, allowing you to place several along the same nighttime route. The rest of the range is in the SentinHome catalog.
To learn more
The other domestic risk that does not come from outside: what the law requires regarding smoke detectors. And for the rest of the house, our 5 solutions for securing a rental home without drilling.